The combination of memberships, resources and shared knowledge of IIC and OpenFog will further the growth of technologies, including fog computing

OpenFog Consortium (OpenFog) and Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) have entered into an agreement to merge the two biggest and most influential global consortia in the fields of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), fog computing and edge computing.

As per the agreement, the members of OpenFog will come into the IIC and that too at a time when the complementary technology areas of the two organisations are emerging in the mainstream.

The collective memberships will continue to drive the momentum of Industrial Internet such as best practices for edge computing and fog computing, and promotion and development of industry guidance. The details of agreement are likely to be finalised by early next year.

Accelerate adoption of IIoT

Commenting on the development, Bill Hoffman, President, IIC, said, “The IIC, now incorporating OpenFog, will be the single largest organisation focused on IIoT, AI, fog computing and edge computing in the world. Between both of our organisations, we have a remarkable global presence with members in more than 30 countries. This agreement will help accelerate the adoption of IIoT, fog computing and edge computing.”

Matt Vasey, Chairman and President, OpenFog and Director – AI and IoT Business Development, Microsoft, said, “We’re excited by the growth and advancement of fog technologies – from a technology, standards and general awareness standpoint – since our launch nearly three years ago. During that time, it has increasingly become apparent that we share so much synergy with the efforts of the IIC that it just made sense to bring the two consortia together.

Vasey further said, “The resulting combination of memberships, resources and shared knowledge will only further the growth of technologies, including fog, which will support IIoT ecosystems.”

The IIC is the world’s leading membership programme transforming business and society by accelerating the IIoT and development, adoption and widespread usage of interconnected devices and machines. The OpenFog was established to promote fog computing and address latency, bandwidth and communications challenges related to 5G, IoT and AI applications.